In Hidalgo County, more corruption charges in sheriff's office

Updated 12:23 pm, Wednesday, December 25, 2013

Federal agents Tuesday arrested a top-ranking law enforcement official in Hidalgo County, a man described in courtroom testimony as a chief political enforcer for Sheriff Lupe Treviño.

The arrest of sheriff's Commander Jose A. Padilla, 53, on money laundering and marijuana smuggling charges is just the latest in a series of federal corruption investigations in the border county that already ensnared Treviño's son.

The sheriff didn't respond to phone calls requesting comment, but he has in the past distanced himself from the inner workings of his campaign.

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One former deputy testified in the trial of one of his cohorts that Padilla, Treviño's second-in-command who the deputy said leaned on underlings to help raise money for the sheriff's re-election, “put fear in you.”

James Phil “J.P.” Flores told jurors in the trial this summer that the pressure applied by Padilla to raise campaign money caused Flores to fall under the sway of a Rio Grande Valley drug trafficker.

No one answered the phone Tuesday at the office of Padilla's attorney, Joe Cisneros, and no one from the law firm responded to emails seeking comment.

The indictment against Padilla alleges he worked with Tomas “El Gallo” Gonzalez, 36, an trafficking suspect from Weslaco who prosecutors say smuggled pot to Dallas, Arkansas, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, Iowa and North Carolina.

The indictment provides few details of Padilla's alleged participation in the smuggling scheme, but it accuses him of conspiring with Gonzalez and 10 others to distribute more than 1,000 kilograms of marijuana since 2007.

He's also accused, along with Gonzalez and another defendant, of laundering money.

He faces up to life in prison if convicted of the drug charge and up to 20 years in prison on the money laundering charge.

Padilla's indictment came as little surprise. His name surfaced repeatedly during the trial this summer of former sheriff's Deputy Jorge Garza, one of nine Valley law enforcement officers, many of them members of the infamous “Panama Unit” joint task force between the Sheriff's Office and the Mission Police Department, charged with drug crimes.

Among those charged was Mission police investigator Jonathan Treviño, the sheriff's son.

Most pleaded guilty and a jury convicted Garza, but witnesses at his trial painted a picture of a county with law enforcement agencies that had been widely compromised by drug traffickers.

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Along with the deputies and Mission police, a former justice of the peace and a former investigator for the district attorney's office also had allegations leveled against them.

Another DA's investigator was fired after invoking his Fifth Amendment protections from self-incrimination. The biggest splash, however, came when Padilla, too, took the Fifth. Treviño didn't fire him.

“For him to take the Fifth, it felt like he was protecting a bigger secret,” Chavez said. “He didn't want to reveal as much information. It seemed to me that he was a key figure in the re-election campaign.”

Treviño in the past has defended himself in interviews and on social media.

“I have stood against corruption my entire 41-year law enforcement career,” he said during a public event shortly after the trial. “You may not like the truth, but I've always told it.”